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Overview: After a horrific surgery orchestrated by his grandfather, Lance became fused with an otherwordly organism, giving him a plethora of
The symbiote in it's true form.
inhuman abilities and biological enhancements. The true form of such symbiotes, as well as general information, was not documented for reasons of secrecy but the few accounts from members of Alistair’s secret cult describe the same image: a squid-like creature no larger than a human adult’s torso. These symbiotes choose hosts with suitable „chemistry” and healthy, clean constitutions for better survival, lest both the host and the symbiote either become unstable or perish. Symbiotes fuse naturally with their hosts by latching on to them and slowly melding into their bodies through complete cellular difussion, the symbiote receding into the host’s body save for a number of small but powerful secretory glands dispersed internally across the body, used to „secrete” the bio-foam that forms the external, combat armor. Lance had to undergo various chemical treatments to ensure compatibility, something his step brother was not given as an experimental benchmark and as a result became very unstable. Alistair made himself a host to one as well, but resorted to arcane knowledge and powers to control it.
Lance in his symbiote form.
Physical appearence: When in symbiote form, Lance becomes engulfed in a sort of bio-foam that
Lance during a search quest.
forms the external combat armor, which acts like a protective armor but also like a second skin, with all acompanying tactile and pain senses. He gains a significant boost in height, going from his original 1.55 meters to 2.25 meters, easily dwarfing the average basketball player. The armor seems composed of a white bone/keratin like material, covering most of the body save for the areas around limb joints and the neck, instead a thick leathery tissue cover said areas for better flexibility. The hands and feet are „outfitted” with razor-sharp claws capable of tearing even through metals. The transformation can be swift for quick action. A notable characteristic is possesion of a beak-like structure to facilitate breathing in harsh environments and to somewhat distort his voice with an odd reverb, two sets of eyes on the cranial area, as well as a fith „eye” with an unkown application (Lance was not yet able to figure what it does, he assumes it posseses some kind of special sense). While Lance can access all his abilities in the symbiote form at their fullest (relatively), he can also benefit from the biological impowerment in his human form although not as greatly (symbiote form can surpass even other outwordly creatures, human form is somewhat below human peak)
Powers
Protective armor: An external bone/keratin like armor with a layer of leathery tissue beneath it for increased protection. Resistant to various forms of attacks, physical trauma and weather elements. Can slowly regenerate over time. The armor is remarkably durable around the arms for better close-combat, similar to medieval battle gauntlets, capable of blocking or parrying attacks directly with his hands. Can absorb/deflect attacks comparable to swords (both slash and stabs), blunt force similar to hammers or maces and even bullets. However, prolonged attacks my cause the armor to slowly chip away and must be restored.
Enhanced physical strength: Works as increased bone and tissue density. Capable of lifting weights of over 500 kilograms, punch through brick walls and can even tear apart a car. Also adds to his physical durability to injuries.
Inhuman reflexes: Reaction time is greatly reduced to the point that from Lance’s perspective the world moves in slow motion. Lance has to focus in order to use them and describes it as „having to squint”. Prolonged use may cause dizzyness.
Internal protection: His internal organs are coated with a durable membrane for inner protection against blunt trauma, puncture wounds and increased vitality.
Fast blood coagulation: To prevent blood loss and facilitate healing of scars.
Enhanced senses: Prominently his sight and hearing. Extra eyes are capable of nightvision, heatvision, pheromone detection and various spectrums of light, although they are unrefined in Lance’s case due to not fully understanding yet how they work.
Inhuman stamina: Able to go on for days without rest, food and water, although during extreme periods of time his strength will begin to waiver.
Enhanced agility: Despite the bulky appearence, the armor allows a great deal of flexibility on par with top tier athletes.
Hyperactive metabolism: Wounds heal at an accelerated pace, provided Lance has taken in enough nourishment and rest; even heavy injuries that would leave Lance crippeled or even on death bed can recover, albeit it would take weeks, month, even years depending on severity; able to steadily reconstruct bones, tissue and even most organs. The immune system also becomes enhanced, able to cure the strongest of poisons and diseases.
Natural weapons: Able to grow bone/keratin blades from his forearms, sharp as scalpels and almost as durable as steel swords. Can also let out sharp spikes and needles from his hands as a form of ranged attack; can throw one at a time for accuracy or multiple projectiles in a wide spread. They use a little bit of the same biomass as the armor so overusing said „weapons” might compromise his protection.
Adaptive biology: The symbiote can help Lance’s body slowly adapt to whatever forms of danger he is exposed to over time (repeated physical trauma increases armor and skin density; repeated exposure to poisons and diseases decrease healing time and increases resistance; repeated exposure to extreme temperatures increases resistance to them, etc). Prolonged effort or combat will slowly build Lance's strengh and physical prowess, faster compared to regular humans. May even be capable of morphological adaptations to certain environments (such as developing gills and webbed finger when underwater or). However, if a very long period of time passes without exposure to said harmfull stimuli, resistances may atrophy and Lance must build them up again from scratch. From Alistairs research, it is noted that some symbiotes are capable of continued evolution...
Berserk State: A heightened state of combat induced by extreme stress and rage. Lance’s body is filled to the brim with adrenaline, pushing him and the symbiote to the absolute limit. The symbiote form gains a drastic increase in muscle mass, growing to over 3 meters tall, the armor becoming a blackish coloring and almost impervious to damage and physically strong enough to level buildings. There are however downsides to this state: armor regeneration is nullified, degenerating health, loss of control over rage and even chances of falling comatose after the berserk state wears off (it happened to Lance only once during his previous adventure and he nearly blacked out from it), leaving him vulnerable.
General downsides and weaknesses:
Lance in his Berserk state.
- Mental strain due to the nature of the symbiote (or just him pondering on the worst of implications).
- The symbiote may loose it’s strength the more Lance himself becomes exhausted.
- Lance believed he became a walking biohazard when first exploring his abilities, that he should keep away from people to prevent it from spreading. He also believed that he could never have children due to being a mutant (and having men like his father and grandfather in his family tree). All that is far from the truth, as the symbiote kept him as healthy as possible and no carrier of any disease; however because of all the physiological and even genetic alterations to achieve that, he has become highly infertile.
Miscellaneous abilities:
- Common close combat tactics; basic street-fight stance and footwork, novice sword stance, blocking or parrying attacks, dodge-rolling or sidestepping to evade attacks or attackers, other weapons or ranged options whenever available.